After its debut in China last month, Samsung has launched the company’s thinnest smartphone, the Galaxy A8, in India. Priced at Rs 32,500, the Samsung Galaxy A8 is just 5.9mm thick but is not the slimmest in the market. Handsets like Gionee Elife S7, Oppo R5 and Vivo X5Max are 5.5mm, 4.85mm and 4.75mm thick respectively. The Samsung smartphone will be available in Black, White, and Gold colour variants from Monday.

Asim Warsi, vice president for mobile & IT, Samsung, said to The Mobile Indian, "Samsung Galaxy A8 will be available from August 3 at all the online and physical retail stores across the country." He further added, "Galaxy A8 has been completely manufactured in Samsung's India plant and all the devices manufactured there will be used for meeting the demands of Indian consumers."

The device packs the Exynos 5 octa-core processor, along with 2GB of RAM and a 16MP rear camera, in what Samsung calls flagship specifications at an affordable price point. The Galaxy A8 also follows Samsung’s newfound interest metallic smartphones, sporting a full metal unibody design. This of course means that there is no removable battery on the Samsung Galaxy A8.

Speaking of the battery, Samsung has put in a 3,050 mAh battery on the device, along with a 5.7 inch FHD display. The device also has a 5MP front camera and 32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded to 128GB. The Galaxy A8 also supports 4G connectivity. It will also be available on both retail and online outlets.This is a dual SIM smartphone and both the bands are compatible with 4G networks in India. Samsung has also added a fingerprint sensor to the home key.

Samsung Galaxy main thing is that it features two Nano-SIM slots out of which one acts as a micro-SD card slot which means either user can get dual sim support without a microSD card storage expansion or either can use single sim slot with a microSD card expansion.

Design is one of Galaxy A8’s talking points. It boasts a near bezel-less design, and an ultra-thin metal-clad body as well. The overall design language is a big change over the existing Galaxy A-series smartphones, and is instead more in line with the Galaxy S6. Another USP is a fingerprint scanner, which is integrated into the physical home button on the front.

It features a 16MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front-facing camera similar to the Galaxy S6. The phone comes with a 3050mAh battery and runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with Samsung's TouchWiz UI. The Galaxy A8 also sports a fingerprint scanner integrated with the phone's Home button.

So yes, there are plenty of good hardware bits on board and Android 5.1 Lollipop on the software front. But all of this for now comes only on paper. Real-world tests will prove whether the camera is anywhere close to the Galaxy S6 or the Galaxy S6 edge.

The A8 is available in black, gold and white color options. The Galaxy A8 measures 158x76.8x5.9mm and weighs 10 grams more than its predecessor - 151 grams. Samsung has partnered up with Airtel to offer data benefits to customers and the handset can be purchased directly from Samsung’s eStore.